By Secretary of State Phil McGrane
Constitution Day: A Moment to Reflect on Rights and Responsibilities
Today marks Constitution Day, September 17th. It’s the day we honor our country’s most sacred document. It was on this day in 1787 that our founding fathers signed and gave life to The Constitution of the United States of America. Within that document is the foundation for a new form of self-governance that was built on hard-fought lessons from our past and that recognizes the fundamental rights of its citizens. It was this foundation that the American experiment was built on, an experiment that we are continuing to live today.
The political assassination of Charlie Kirk, one week ago today, is an alarming reminder that our freedoms are not guaranteed. They take work, from all of us as citizens, to keep this experiment going. Charlie Kirk and his family paid the ultimate price for exercising one of our most fundamental freedoms, the freedom of speech, enshrined in the first Amendment to the Constitution. That freedom is built on the principle that in order to survive as a country, we each must be able to freely express our views and viewpoints, no matter how much we disagree or how disagreeable we find them.
When political violence is directed at someone exercising their constitutional rights, and when such acts are tolerated, it chips away at the very foundation on which our country was built.
Constitution Day is an opportunity to reflect on our values as a country and to remember all of the people who came before us who were willing to sacrifice it all so that we could have so much. In order for our country to thrive, it takes all of us, as citizens, to participate in the political process and to do so in a way that honors the rights of one another. As a country, we’ve come this far, we’ve been through so much, and I believe the Constitution and the values it contains provides us with a road map for a bright future ahead.
Phil McGrane
A Note of Gratitude:
I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt appreciation for Utah Governor Spencer Cox for his leadership, wisdom, and fortitude in the face of such tragic events. His words and actions have embodied the highest form of the values we hold so dear.
About Phil McGrane
Phil McGrane was elected Idaho’s twenty-eighth Secretary of State and took office on January 2, 2023. McGrane served as elected Clerk of Ada County from 2019-2022. McGrane holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy, a juris doctorate, and a Master of Public Administration. As a fourth-generation Idahoan, Phil has dedicated his career to making elections in the state of Idaho accessible, secure and transparent.
